Dr. Alok Kanojia (Dr. K)

If our driver for self-improvement is to change our internal emotional state, what is the brain going to do?

It's not actually going to improve.

It's going to try to change our internal emotional state.

So the moment that you feel inspired by watching some kind of self-improvement video, then you have fixed the problem, right?

So I feel dejected.

Now I feel inspired.

The whole goal is to change my emotional state, right?

That's what the driving force is.

And so now we also see why this sort of essentially creates a loop.

Because that once the inspiration goes away, so you save it for later, right?

So you save it for later.

But once the inspiration goes away, the next day I wake up, I still feel dejected.

Now my brain asks itself, okay, when we're feeling dejected, what helps us feel better?

Because watching self-help content inspires you.

And your brain is like, we feel bad, let's feel good.

Simple, right?

I'm hungry, let me eat something.

And then it learns, oh, you know what works really well?

Watching inspirational, motivational content.

So then it goes and watches inspirational, motivational content again.